Death, lies and grim Basra videotape - rated mature

Two British soldiers lie dead on a Basra roadway, a small Iraqi girl  victim of an Anglo-American air strike  is brought to hospital with her intestines spilling out of her stomach, a terribly wounded woman screams in agony as doctors try to take off her black dress.

An Iraqi general, surrounded by hundreds of his armed troops, stands in central Basra and announces that Iraq's second city remains firmly in Iraqi hands.

It is also proof that Basra  reportedly "captured" and "secured" by British troops last week  is, indeed, under the control of Saddam Hussein's forces.

Despite claims by British officers that some form of uprising has broken out in Basra, cars and buses continue to move through the streets while Iraqis queue patiently for gas bottles as they are unloaded from a government truck. A remarkable part of the tape shows fireballs blooming over western Basra and the explosion of incoming  and presumably British  shells.

The short sequence of the dead British soldiers for the public showing of which Tony Blair expressed such horror yesterday is little different from dozens of similar clips of dead Iraqi soldiers shown on British television over the past 12 years, pictures that never drew any expressions of condemnation from the British prime minister. The two Britons, still in uniform, are laying on a roadway, arms and legs apart, one of them apparently hit in the head, the other shot in the chest and abdomen.

Another sequence from the same tape shows crowds of Basra civilians and armed men in civilian clothes, kicking the soldiers' Jeep  registration number HP5AA  and dancing on top of the vehicle.

Other men can be seen kicking the overturned ministry of defence trailer, registration number 91KC98, which the Jeep was towing when it was presumably ambushed.

Also to be observed on the unedited tape  which was driven up to Baghdad on the open road from Basra  is a British pilotless drone photo-reconnaissance aircraft, its red and blue roundels visible on one wing, shot down and lying overturned on a roadway. Marked "ARMY" in capital letters, it carries the code sign ZJ300 on its tail and is attached to a large cylindrical pod that probably contains the plane's camera.

Far more terrible than the pictures of the dead British soldiers, however, is the tape from Basra's largest hospital as victims of the Anglo-American bombardment are brought to the operating rooms shrieking in pain.

A middle-aged man is carried into the hospital in pyjamas, soaked head to foot in blood. A little girl, perhaps 4 years old, is brought into the operating room on a trolley, staring at a heap of her own intestines protruding from the left side of her stomach.

A blue-uniformed doctor pours water over the little girl's guts and then gently applies a bandage before beginning surgery. A woman in black with what appears to be a stomach wound cries out as doctors try to strip her for surgery. In another sequence, a trail of blood leads from the impact of an incoming  presumably British  shell. Next to the crater is a pair of plastic slippers.

The Al-Jazeera tapes, most of which have never been seen, are the first vivid proof that Basra remains totally outside British control.

Not only is one of the city's main roads to Baghdad still open  this is how the three main tapes reached the Iraqi capital  but Iraqi general Khaled Hatem is interviewed in a Basra street, surrounded by hundreds of his uniformed and armed troops, and telling Al-Jazeera's reporter that his men will "never" surrender to Iraq's enemies. Armed Baath party militiamen can also be seen in the streets, where traffic cops are directing lorries and buses near the city's Sheraton Hotel.

Mohamed al-Abdullah, Al-Jazeera's correspondent in Basra must be the bravest journalist in Iraq right now. In the sequence of three tapes, he can be seen conducting interviews with families under fire and calmly reporting the incoming British artillery bombardment.

One tape shows that the Sheraton Hotel on the banks of Shatt Al-Arab River has sustained shell damage. On the edge of the river  beside one of the huge statues of Iraq's 1980-88 war martyrs, each pointing an accusing finger across the waterway toward Iran  Basra residents can be seen filling jerry cans from the sewage-polluted river.

Six days ago, the Iraqi government said that 30 civilians had been killed in Basra and another 63 wounded. Wednesday, it claimed that more than 4,000 civilians had been wounded in Iraq since the war began and more than 350 killed.

But al-Abdullah's tape shows at least seven more bodies brought to the Basra hospital mortuary over the past 36 hours. One of them, his head still pouring blood on to the mortuary floor, was identified as an Arab correspondent for a Western news agency.

Other harrowing scenes show the partially decapitated body of a little girl, her red scarf still wound round her neck. Another small girl was lying on a stretcher with her brain and left ear missing. Another dead child had its feet blown away.

There was no indication whether American or British ordnance had killed these children. The tapes give no indication of Iraqi military casualties.

But at a time when Iraqi authorities will not allow Western reporters to visit Basra, this is the nearest to independent evidence we have of continued resistance in the city and the total failure of the British to capture it. For days, the Iraqis have been denying optimistic reports from "embedded" reporters  especially on the BBC  who gave the impression that Basra was "secured" or otherwise effectively under British control. This the tape conclusively proves to be untrue. There is also a sequence showing two men both black  who are claimed by Iraqi troops to be U.S. prisoners of war. No questions are asked of the men, who are dressed in identical black shirts and jackets. Both appear on the tape nervous and looking at the camera crew and Iraqi troops who are crowded behind them.

Of course, it is still possible that some small-scale opposition to the Iraqi regime broke out in the city over the past few days, as British officers have claimed. But, seeing the tapes, it is hard to imagine that it amounted  if it existed at all  to anything more than a brief gun battle.

The unedited reports, therefore, provide damaging proof that Anglo-American spokespeople have not been telling the truth about the battle for Basra. And, in the end, this is far more devastating to the invading armies than the sight of two dead British soldiers or  since Iraqi lives are as sacred as British lives  than the pictures of dead Iraqi children.

Toronto Star

Be warned - the following pictures are very graphic. View at your own risk.
www.aljazeera.net/news/arabic/2003/3/3-22-26.htm (external - login to view)

Shmad

#2

Re: Death, lies and grim Basra videotape - rated mature

Mar 28th, 2003

nasty... nasty... wars...

Andem

Free Thinker

#3

Re: Death, lies and grim Basra videotape - rated mature

Mar 29th, 2003

You know czardogs.. This is not unusual. There has always been half-truth, pure propaganda, justification and outright lies throughout history by any brutal leader.

It's the American way of life!

gnuman

#4

Here's the truth to prove Andem's point

Mar 29th, 2003

Well to prove Andem's point of view go to this link, I warn you you'd be laughing your *** off at this.

www.subhi.com/public/bushwhacked2.mov (external - login to view)

I couldn't stop laughing at that one and its true too. I mean Bush hasn't made so much sense in his life!

Anonymous

#5

Re: Death, lies and grim Basra videotape - rated mature

Apr 10th, 2003

Oh my gawd! That was hilarious! And shows what a little discrete editing can do.

However, and more to the point...
"Six days ago, the Iraqi government said that 30 civilians had been killed in Basra and another 63 wounded. Wednesday, it claimed that more than 4,000 civilians had been wounded in Iraq since the war began and more than 350 killed."

If this is the scale of life lost in a WAR...well, I think it's a HUGE step forward.
How many innocents were killed in WW2? Vietnam? Korea? My guess is alot more than 700, and that's doubling the reported death tole FROM Iraq's governmental reports.

Cyberm4n

Liberal

#6

Re: Death, lies and grim Basra videotape - rated mature

Apr 13th, 2003

We cant trust any of the sources which say how many civilians were killed, I can't believe the Iraqi gov't and I cant believe the American gov't. Maybe it's more maybe its less, who knows!

czardogs

#7

Re: Death, lies and grim Basra videotape - rated mature

Apr 14th, 2003

Quote: Originally Posted by Cyberm4n

We cant trust any of the sources which say how many civilians were killed, I can't believe the Iraqi gov't and I cant believe the American gov't. Maybe it's more maybe its less, who knows!

We can trust the Red Cross and/or the Red Cresent to get out reliable casualty figures. They are just now starting to get in there in sufficient numbers.

Also for those that dont know a Canadian was killed while serving our nation as part of the Red Cross in Iraq. A real Canadian Hero.